Occasionally, vehicles enter the Cluster at speeds that put pedestrians at risk. Rather than add a new speed bump at the Cluster entrance, the Board agreed to place some type of sign near the entrance to remind drivers to proceed slowly.

The Board will mail a newsletter to Cluster residents in June. It will provide information about Oak Spring’s web site and FaceBook, the Wednesday trash collection for yard waste, homeowner responsibility for repair and replacement of their lamp posts, the upcoming resurfacing of our roadway, and the six Adirondack chairs being purchased for placement throughout the Cluster for use by residents.

A Board member expressed concern about vehicles entering the Cluster at a speed that could put pedestrians at risk. He suggested that the Cluster install a speed bump at the entrance, since an existing one in front of 1607 Oak Spring Way is too far away to be helpful. Kathy Gately suggested that the Cluster solicit proposals for a new speed bump in the spring of 2014, when bids for seal coating and potential repair work will be requested.

A Board member suggested that Cluster residents might like the option of having natural gas available to homes. He volunteered to contact Washington Gas to see whether gas line/s near the Cluster entrance can be extended to the end of the Cluster.

A Board member pointed out that a Cluster Facebook exists and agreed to send a link to Board members.

The Board of Directors meeting was adjourned at 8:10 PM. The next Board of Directors meeting will occur immediately after the Cluster’s Annual Meeting in January 2014 (date to be determined) at Forest Edge Elementary School in Reston.

Because of our recent mild winters, good budgeting, and a high rate of owners paying the HOA fees, the board has decided that we are financially in a position to do some much needed cluster maintenance. Some of this has already happened – you may have seen tree crews pruning limbs and felling hazardous dead trees.

The other major project will be starting this fall. The board has contracted with Blade Runners to improve our landscaping, most notably the many dead patches of grass around the cluster. BR currently provides our mowing service and has done previous remediation projects for us where they went above and beyond what was required.

Unfortunately, their master gardener does not believe that the grass can be brought back in most of the areas because our trees provide too much coverage even if we were to use a “deep shade” type of grass. So those spots will be mulched and filled with various plantings and ground covers. The other part that excites me, is that all of the mailboxes will now have stone walkways leading to them. No more muddy shoes!

One last note, as you may be aware, we haven’t had to raise the dues in several years. Part of this is because of the volunteer efforts of people in this neighborhood who do things like paint the sign, remove invasive plants from the cluster, or come to the volunteer days we’ve had in the past. If you see something that can be improved and you can do it, great! If it’s something little go ahead and do it, if it’s a little bigger you can email the board about it: board@oakspringway.com. Volunteerism is obviously part of the spirit of Reston and contributes so much to this neighborhood.